These are not the nights which will take up too much time on Everton’s end-of-season highlights package but, in the end, could turn out to be the ones which matter most. If this season ends in success for Carlo Ancelotti and his side come May, then this miserable, rainswept evening in South Yorkshire will not be the most poignant memory. But that does not make Gylfi Sigurdsson’s decisive strike 10 minutes from time, or the ramifications of it, any less significant.
Prior to that moment, it was Storm Bella which felt like it had the most significant influence on proceedings here, as Everton looked set to follow Manchester United, Leicester and Chelsea and drop vital points on Boxing Day. Conditions were difficult for both sides, and given the situation both find themselves in at present, you felt as though a point here would have done nothing for the goals of either .